How it was made

I began by sketching the profiles of the hull. I added a spline at the top and bottom of the end piece to use as rails while lofting, which gives the ship its distinctive curved end.

Sketch of ship hull

I extruded and cut a rectangular section into the front of the boat for the captain’s quarters.

Adding captain’s quarters

Then came the posts along the sides of the boat.

Sketching and revolving ship wall posts

In a separate file, I designed a ship’s wheel and linked it into the ship.

Ship’s wheel

Wheel on the ship

I wanted to convey the sense of the sails under wind. To do this I drew splines in a 3D sketch and used them as rails when lofting between the curved top and bottom of each sail.

Sails on the ship

3D printing

I used an Ultimaker S5 to 3D print the pirate ship which has a dual-extruder so I could use PVA for water-soluble supports.

Slicing pirate ship in Cura

Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of the boat with all the supports, however it took 5 days in a bath of water for everything to dissolve. Once it was in the water, I also realised it doesn’t actually work as a boat: it sinks. I’m not too disappointed, since I didn’t design it to float, but I’d love to try making a boat that does.

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